


The Devil You Know

by little_librarian



Category: Constantine (TV), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Constantine Season 1, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23284429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/little_librarian/pseuds/little_librarian
Summary: “And why are you here, Zed?” Sara asks.Zed says, “I had a vision,” like it explains everything.“A vision,” Ray repeats, a mix of disbelief and potential excitement. “Like, of the future? That’s a thing?”“Look at your life, squire,” says John.It’s a fair point.(Sara Lance meets Zed Martin, fights a fear demon, and learns a bit more about John Constantine.)
Relationships: John Constantine & Mary "Zed" Martin, John Constantine & Sara Lance
Comments: 5
Kudos: 85





	The Devil You Know

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not over Constantine's line, "I imagine that everyone I care about is dead," from his show, and I really miss Zed.
> 
> Pls don't ask me when in the LoT timeline this is because I honestly have no clue

Sara, Ray, and John walk through the second floor of the old house, checking rooms for the magical being that had set off their radar. Gideon had alerted them to a series of missing persons and a high level of magic, but with no witnesses or bodies. John’s own tracking spell, meant to lead them to the strongest trace of magic in the area, had drawn them to this abandoned house, opening every door in search of the creature and finding only bloodstains and damaged furniture.

When Ray reaches to open the next door, there’s a creaking noise from downstairs that Sara recognizes instantly as the front door. She presses a hand to her earpiece and says, “Zari, are you still on the _Waverider_?”

“Everyone’s here, boss,” Zari responds. “What’s up?”

“We’ve got a houseguest,” Sara says as footsteps echo from below.

“Keep those blasters ready, big guy,” John tells Ray. “If it’s corporeal you’ll at least stun it.”

“You only want me for my suit,” Ray says. It’s lighthearted, and Sara remembers the days when Ray couldn’t tolerate such a joke, let alone make one.

“Well, that and your smile.” John Constantine, always good for sarcasm. “Now come on, power up.”

Ray obliges. The ATOM suit hums as the energy builds up, and Sara really needs to see if Ray can make the suit run quieter. She hopes their intruder doesn’t have magical super hearing.

The group sneaks back down the stairs and peeks around the corner to see a curly-haired woman moving down the hall in front of them, heading for the back of the house.

“I’ll be damned,” John says, amused. “Weapons down, mate.”

Sara rolls her eyes. “John, is now really the time to—,” but he’s already around the corner and out of whispering range. Ray, at least, still has his arms up and ready to fire.

John reaches the woman and claps a heavy hand on her shoulder, which really wasn’t a good idea judging by how quickly she spins around and punches him in the stomach. Sara hopes she isn’t their fugitive. She kind of wants to be friends with anyone who can make John double over like that.

“Wait,” Sara says before Ray can fire. John’s holding his gut and wheezing, sure, but that punch had looked like a reaction more than an outright attack. If there’s one thing Sara trusts, it’s her instincts.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” the woman says. She grabs John’s arm and helps him back upright—yanks him up, really, but he goes willingly.

“Hell of a way to say hello, love,” John snarks.

“You scared me! What did you expect?”

“I liked you better when you were just bumping into me.”

“Alright, who are you?” Sara interrupts. She’s given up on whispering, considering the amount of noise John caused would have definitely alerted anything in the house to their presence. They’re not being attacked, so Sara assumes the house is currently monster-free.

“Zed,” the woman says like it answers everything. It totally doesn’t.

“And why are you here, Zed?”

“I had a vision.”

“A vision,” Ray repeats, a mix of disbelief and potential excitement. “Like, of the future? That’s a thing?”

“Look at your life, squire,” says John.

It’s a fair point.

***

They’re on the _Waverider_ 's bridge for all of two seconds before Zed gasps, drops her head into her hands, and sways forward dangerously. Zari lunges to steady her, but John practically shoves her away.

“No one touch her,” he barks, then wraps his hands around Zed’s arms to hold her up. _Hypocrite_ , Sara thinks distantly. John doesn’t speak, just holds her still and stares at her with his rare, vulnerable mix of desperation, fear, and hope.

“There’s so much,” Zed gasps, pained. John lets go of her long enough to wipe away the blood that’s trickling from her nose.

“I know,” says John. “There’s trauma to spare around here. Just focus on me; try to find your way out.”

When Zed does open her eyes after a long minute, John doesn’t release her. He holds her still while he stares, searching her face like it holds the answer to a question only he knows. He’s afraid, Sara realizes. He _cares_.

“Back off, I’m fine,” Zed says. She frees herself from John, pushes him aside but stays close enough to him that their arms nearly brush.

“Was that a vision?” asks Ray. “What did you see?”

“We’re doing visions now?” Zari groans. “Great.”

“Yeah, a vision,” Zed confirms. “Your pasts, I think. I don’t know. I don’t usually get so many things at once. I couldn’t sort it all out.”

“Her visions usually rely on touch,” John explains as Zed gathers herself. “There’s plenty of psychic energy on this ship, though, just waiting for an outlet. Makes for one hell of a hit.”

Sara’s more than a bit uncomfortable with her past being laid out so easily for a stranger, and she can tell from her teammates’ faces that she isn’t the only one. It’s one thing to know they’re messed up. It’s another to know that a girl who regularly gets peeks into other peoples’ trauma is overwhelmed by just being in their presence.

“You touched her,” says Mick, ever contrary.

“After her vision stopped,” Nate picks up. “But she didn’t get anything from you.”

“I can keep my issues locked up,” John says, in the same moment that Zed goes, “I’m used to him.”

Sara’s torn between rolling her eyes at John’s cockiness and giving him a _look_ at Zed’s proclamation—John certainly isn’t touchy with anyone on the _Waverider_. She goes with the look because it’s more fun.

John smirks right back at her. “We worked together a while back,” he explains, smug. “End of the world, angels and demons and the like.”

Oh, that _bastard_.

“Angels?” Nate repeats in disbelief. “Like. . .?” He points one finger at the ceiling. Beside him, Ray looks vaguely sick.

Zari crosses her arms and shakes her head. “Nope. Nuh-uh. No way.”

“He’s not lying,” Zed says. John’s still radiating smugness, but she is gentle in her confirmation. Sara can see how their team dynamic would have worked. “Some angels are real dicks, though.”

Ray chokes.

“You lot can accept demons from the darkest pits of hell, but angels are too much?” says John. He’s really not helping.

Mick moves into the study, grabs a decanter, and drinks right out of it. He passes to Charlie when she trails in after him, and she at least has the foresight to pour a glass for everyone.

“Alright, love,” John says to Zed, rubbing his hands together. “What have you got on our beastie?”

***

They’re not saving the timeline, but Sara, Nate, and Zari are staring down a demon nonetheless. The mission had turned out to be one of John’s “social calls.” He’d insisted on solving it alone, and Sara insisted it remain a team mission out of equal parts curiosity and concern. Turns out, some idiot teenagers had used a ouija board to summon a literal fear demon, and now they’re all dead and the demon is running loose, ready to torture townsfolk to death with their worst fears. Sara’s putting ouija boards on the banned items list the instant they’re back on the ship.

The Legends are holding the demon back while John and Zed scramble to do some sort of banishing magic, drawing occult symbols with chalk on the town hall's floor. They work well together: Zed knows how to draw every symbol that John calls out to her and she easily processes his strange, mystical explanations, nodding along and offering suggestions where the Legends usually stare and try to figure out if he’s joking.

Everything goes to plan until Sara makes eye contact with the demon, and then the world shifts.

Sara can’t tell where she is anymore, can’t even tell what she’s standing on. The environment is blurred and nebulous; she could be anywhere. What she can see, though, are the bodies around her. Her team lies scattered, mangled and bloody and beyond saving. The air smells like rot and her mouth tastes like ash. She feels hopeless and utterly alone. There’s something lurking behind her now. It casts no shadow and makes no sound, but Sara knows it’s there. She starts to turn without meaning to, like she's compelled to face the thing, and then—

The world shifts.

She’s back in the town hall just in time to hear John shout the last words of his spell and watch the demon vanish in a downwards spiral of smoke. Sara feels sick to her stomach and does her best not to cry when she sees Zari and Nate alive.

There’s silence for a moment, then Zari says, “That was _awful_.” She clutches her amulet and looks ready to throw up. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t _that_.”

“Did we all see the same thing?” Nate asks. His eyes are red and there are tear tracks on his cheeks that he doesn’t bother to wipe away.

“Everyone dead,” Sara confirms with a hollow voice. She can’t shake that feeling of hopelessness from the vision.

Nate sniffs. “I thought I’d see evil Beebo.”

It’s a horrible joke, but Sara appreciates it anyway.

A few feet away, Zed is leaning heavily on John. He has her arm in a vice grip, and Sara wonders if he’s trying to hold her up or keep himself steady. Maybe both.

“On some level, you’re all afraid of losing each other,” says John, voice rough and breathless from shouting the spell. “The demon used a shared fear instead of hitting you individually. More powerful that way.”

“I’ve never imagined anything that gruesome,” Nate says.

John shrugs and says, “I have,” and it’s so brutally honest that no one knows how to respond.

“Five minutes every morning,” Zed says, so quiet it's almost a whisper. “That’s what you see?” She looks up at John, eyes wide and imploring, and Sara knows that John won’t lie to her.

“Sometimes.”

Something in Sara’s heart twists, and she’s reminded of just how little she knows about John Constantine.

“Jesus, dude,” Nate says. He’s not crying anymore, but he looks as shattered as Sara feels.

Zed slaps John’s arm. “I told you to stop that.”

John feigns hurt for a second, and then goes still as Zed wraps him in a hug. He’s slow to hug her back, clearly uncomfortable displaying any sort of affection around the others, but he eventually gets one arm around her and his other hand on the back on her head.

Nate tilts his head. “You know, a group hug sounds nice right now.”

“Oh, no no no no,” John protests, but Zed laughs and holds him still until Nate is hugging them both. John squirms to no avail, then settles and looks extremely discontent. His sulking is ruined by the way he curls his fingers into Zed’s hair.

Zari comes over to Sara and bumps their shoulders together. “I formally request we park the _Waverider_ somewhere nice for a few days.”

Neither of them are very touchy people, so it’s enough for Sara to nudge her back and say, “I think that can be arranged.”


End file.
